The Disney Afternoon Collection (PlayStation 4) Review

The Disney Afternoon Collection is a compilation that seems utterly impossible in an era where old licensed titles often become victims of circumstances and get lost in legal limbo. Such titles like Scott Pilgrim vs. The Wold: The Game or various Ninja Turtles arcade ports get taken off digital stores and get lost forever due to expiring licences. It becomes a bit of a risk, and the fact that Capcom and Disney managed to stay on good terms in spite of Disney taking up so many other partners over the years (Square Enix, Sony, Virgin Interactive) showed that there was enough care for some high level executive to decide to green light a compilation of old fondly remembered NES games on current gen platforms.

With a total of six titles, The Disney Afternoon Collection contains mostly the fan-favourites and their respective sequels, and a few bonuses like boss rush and time attack modes to spice up the gameplay. For anyone who might find NES era difficulty a bit too spicy or simply is just too old now, the rewind feature from the non-3D Rare Replay games has been implemented, as well as save stating.

DuckTales and its sequel play pretty much the same. It had a fine formula that didn't need much reworking. Scrooge's abilities are simple yet addictive: he can pogo bounce and golf-swing his cane. Things get a bit more challenging in the sequel, which has harder bosses and the ability to hang with the hook part of the cane. Both games follow the same set-up of selecting a stage and then treasure hunting. Anyone who played the WayFoward DuckTales: Remastered will recall how the game was full of interruptions for cutscenes and dialogue. The original game proves just how superfluous all that extra narrative was and maintains a constant steady flow.

DuckTales prime is not perfect, however - it was one of the earlier games that Capcom made and is prone to all kinds of graphical glitches and slowdown, and all of that has been kept here in this compilation. DuckTales 2 fares a bit better, but the game itself just was not as memorable as the first. All the better ideas were used in the first game.

Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers and its sequel manage to avoid the trap that the two DuckTales games fell into: the sequel manages to be a bit better than the first game. As either Chip or Dale, expect a fairly straightforward platformer, but with the twist of picking up and throwing boxes. The entirety of both of these game rely on the mechanics of picking up and throwing objects, even during combat and fighting bosses too. These titles also are a bit more memorable from other games from the era thanks to the visuals. Since both games revolve around playing as small chipmunks, the sense of scale gets pretty vivid. Both Rescue Rangers titles also have the distinction of being the only two games in the compilation that feature couch co-op, something that adds value, certainly.

The only real turd in The Disney Afternoon Collection is TailSpin. Sadly, Baloo's shoot 'em up utterly fails to impress thanks to its unbelievably sluggish and unresponsive gameplay. The one aspect of TailSpin that is distinct is that Baloo can flip his seaplane upside-down to fire behind him. This is the one game where the rewind feature becomes absolutely necessary since so much of it is trial and error with unforgivingly far checkpoints. It is possible to improve the capabilities of the sea-plane, but even when fully upgraded it only feels like this is how it should have been like at the start of the game. It is almost as if the developers needed to find a way to artificially pad out the game to justify whatever it cost back in the day.

There really isn't anything interesting about TailSpin. It just feels like a generic and poor shooter. The pixel art is not up to par since everything is so small during the gameplay it becomes inconsequential to the original cartoon and may as well be anything. This is the kind of game that Game Genie was made for.

The biggest surprise of the The Disney Afternoon Collection is Darkwing Duck. It is unbelievable to play because it is basically Mega Man. Anyone who has played any of the old Mega Man games knows exactly how the blue bomber controls and gets the feel of his jumping mechanics... Even the level selection is similar to Mega Man. Darkwing Duck has the same playability and somewhat expands on the action by introducing character specific features that were signature to Darkwing Duck, like his cape shield and various gas gun shots. The cape shield is especially interesting since it adds an extra layer of skill to a platformer with some shooter elements. Darkwing Duck is the other title in this compilation that has very striking visuals that wonderfully emulate the stark gothic style of the original TV show. The sprite art on display is a highpoint and features some of the best visuals the NES was capable of at the time.

The six games in The Disney Afternoon Collection, with the exception of TailSpin, are still pretty solid games and hold up nicely. It is sad that The Little Mermaid on NES was ignored since it was one of the better Disney-Capcom collaborations, and instead the subpar shooter gets in. As far as compilations go, The Disney Afternoon Collection is solid. The added modes and rewind features make the titles more palatable for the modern day mild mannered gamer, and the CRT filter display option does its job of mimicking the cathode ray glow of yesteryear. The sequels to DuckTales and Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers are a bit too similar to their respective predecessors, which can potentially make this six-game compilation feel more like four... Another reason to have included The Little Mermaid.